


pinoko's wish

by guan_lupe



Category: Black Jack (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-21 14:23:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14917022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guan_lupe/pseuds/guan_lupe
Summary: pinoko searches for means beyond mere medicine to get her wishblack jack ღ adult!pinoko





	1. gods, magic and mystery

"Pinoko, how many times must I tell you? You won't grow anymore!" She'd heard it so many times. But she wouldn't give up finding a way. See, what her Dr. Black Jack wasn't realizing was that mysteries existed beyond the medicine. Her practical doctor thought things could be determined by analyzing time and circumstance and tools. But Pinoko had been born of a miracle, and ¡Acchon Burike! she would grow miraculously as well! Pinoko had heard all about ancient miracles from that strange acupuncturist who had once come to the doctor's house, listened while Black Jack sulked and finally just asked the man what he wanted. He just wanted company, was all. He and Black Jack had sat in silence for a long time while Pinoko brought over jasmine tea. Then the acupuncturist began talking of miracles and mysteries and Buddha.

On their next trip, they went to Nepal. Pinoko ran away from the doctor and asked the people of the town where the nearest Buddhist temple was. She went. She sat and stared at the the Enlightened One. It was boring. But, there was something so very content about the Buddha. Something so accepting. Her mind cleared. She remembered what the acupuncturist had been mentioned. Something about... chi? Ah, yes. She suddenly understood. She suddenly knew!

"Fank you, Buddha!" she cried, waving at the gilded statue as the worshippers nearby chuckled. Yes, all is one, in the end, all: her growth was stunted because her chi was wrong (at least she thought). Well, she'd just get that acupuncturist to work his needles on her. She endured a storm of yelling when she arrived back at Black Jack's side. But, she took it in stride. After all, she was now going to grow big! After the doctor was finished on his patient, she approached the subject.

"Doctor, umm... that acupunchuwist sure looked like he needed some cushtomers."

"Hm? Oh, Pinoko. He was dying and wanted to congratulate me on being able to cure the only patient he hadn't been able to in his whole life. He's on his death-bed."

"Acchon Burike."

"Why?" Black Jack raised an eyebrow skeptically. 

"Oh, nuffing. But, I'm sure other acupunchuwists are just as good. Right?"

Black Jack shook his head. "Acupuncturists are all a bunch of quacks."

While still in Nepal, Pinoko heard some children talking of a Hindu god named Vamana. He had been a dwarf who saved the world by tricking an evil demon. He'd grown giantesque when he needed to, in order to make three steps to claim earth back. Maybe Pinoko was the same way. Maybe she just needed to be presented with a dire need to grow big.

"Oh, Vamana!" she cried outside a temple to the wrong god, Rama. "Please, make me big! Not too big, you know. Jusht big enough, like a gwown-up! Pinoko needs to save Doctor's grouchy heart!"

"Kid, you're praying to the wrong god," said a passer-by. "And don't worry, you'll get big soon enough. Just eat your vegetables."

"Shtay out of people's business!" cried Pinoko. She stuck her tongue out rudely. This caused a big scandal because the passer-by just happened to be a priest.

"Pinoko. Why are you being so naughty? Why do you keep running away?" Black Jack said, dragging Pinoko away. He'd interfered just in time before people started causing a real ruckus about his little girl.

Pinoko wasn't giving up hope just yet. Dr. Black Jack soon got a call to go to Mexico and she begged that he take her with him. Please! She crawled into her doctor's lap and cuddled the way she knew melted his heart.

"Promise to stay close to me," he murmured, stroking her back. It was rare for him to be so tender, Pinoko relaxed into the affection.

While in Guadalajara, Pinoko noticed everyone prayed to a beautiful, mantled lady and her child son. As soon as Black Jack commenced his operation, she ran outside and entered the first church she saw.

"Wow," she whispered. She called to the statue: "Oh, gweat lady and little child, please help me gwow an adult body!"

"Just what are you asking for?" asked a little boy in English. He was sitting and praying over a strand of beads.

Pinoko knew English so she responded in kind. "Shh! I have to gwow big, and I'm asking all the gods of the world to help me. I bet thish little god grew up to be vewy happy and got mawwied, and he should help Pinoko do that too."

"Actually," said the little boy, pointing to a crucifix, "he grew up to be scorned by all his friends and murdered like a criminal."

"Yeesh." Pinoko's hair stood on end as she looked at Jesus. "Never mind. You know somefing? I bet my husband would have been able to perform surgewy on those nashty wounds and save that god. He's a vewy famous doctor, you know."

The little boy just stared, then he blurted out: "How can you have a husband? You're like, five!"

Ten minutes later, Pinoko returned to her Black Jack's side just as he finished, very forlorn.

She was just about to give up hope when the doctor was called to Morocco. "And because you were good last time, you come be my assistant," said Black Jack, noting that Pinoko was very down lately. "OK," she replied morosely.

Pinoko was very impressed with Morocco. After Black Jack's surgery, he took her to the markets of Fez and promised she could pick out anything she liked (given it wasn't huge). This cheered Pinoko up somewhat and she ran through the marketplace trying to decide what she could possibly get, and, if possible, how to persuade the doctor into getting her more than just one thing. Then she ran across an abandoned bottle, littered in a corner, and was fascinated for its brilliant blue color. She picked it up. Oh, oh! Could it be? Pinoko looked around again and caught the eye of a merchant who only winked at her. Huffing about privacy, she went around to a corner where no one could see and gently rubbed it. Miraculously, a wisp of purple smoke released from the top and a stunning woman stood before Pinoko.

"Aren't you cute?" the woman said about her, smiling. "My masters are usually old and greedy." 

"A djinn!" cried Pinoko, shaking in glee. "Oh, please, will you gwant me a wish?"

"All right," said the djinn. "But, you should know: all my wishes come with a price. I don't tell most people that, but you're just a little girl."

"Oh. Well." Pinoko blushed, hesitant. "I can't gwow at all. My husb- I mean, my guardian saved me: I was a tewatoid cyshtoma in my twin sishter. He put me together and gave me a body, but it won't gwow bigger than thish. And I just want to be an adult." She hiccuped.

The djinn considered.

"Well, that will come for a hefty price. For the ability to grow into a fully-formed adult: you must live a life never knowing true love!"

"Oh... oh, no." Tears welled in Pinoko's child-eyes. She rubbed them away. "I- I could never!"

"Is that true?" asked the djinn, raising a brow.

Pinoko hiccuped again and wiped away more tears. She shook her head.

"I will grant your wish without the price, then," said the beautiful djinn, smiling. "You are wise and brave, little one, and very in-love, it seems."

"W- weally? You'll make Pinoko big?"

The djinn nodded.

"¡Acchon Burike! Fank you!" Pinoko ran and hugged her very tightly. She climbed into her arms and gave her a kiss while tears of happiness streamed down her eyes. "Oh, all my pwaying to the gods worked!"

"Yes, but know this," warned the djinn: "true love, though the greatest thing on earth, is also the most difficult thing on earth. No matter your age or height."

Later, when Pinoko found her dark doctor she endured his yelling and his reproach with a will of someone older. She seemed beyond anything but the happiness in her heart. Black Jack was struck by Pinoko's docility and showed her the little hand-crafted jewelry box he'd bought her. She kissed his cheek and let her little lips linger. Black Jack blushed in the purple-pink sunset and held his little girl close, whispering that he was glad she was safe.


	2. organs, experiments and proposals

The little girl went to bed next to her guardian, dressed in a big, long pajama, all ready to grow during the night.

What she loved about Dr. Black Jack would become more fully developed in an adult's body. She knew enough about what attracts a woman to a man to know what would happen. The genie's words swirled in Pinoko's mind: Love is the most difficult thing on earth.

"I love Doctor," she whispered.

Black Jack rubbed her back. "Sleep."

The next morning Pinoko woke first. She fluttered her eyes open and sure enough, she was different. She was in a twenty-year-old body. With boobies! She touched herself all over, marveling. Her motion woke the doctor.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Black Jack jumped out of bed and glared at Pinoko. 

"Doctor, it's me! Pinoko!" Her lisp was gone.

The doctor ignored her and abandoned the bedroom, calling loudly, "Pinoko! Pinoko!" until he came back and demanded in a deadly tone, "where is she?"

"Doctor, please! It's me! You made me from a cyst, I’m your Pinoko all grown up! It was the djinn in Morocco!"

Black Jack didn't blink. His mouth hung open as he stared at the woman in his bed.

"You followed us from Morocco, you witch?"

Pinoko ignored the insult. She knew the doctor thought she was someone else. "Please listen. I cook for you, I help you and also make things difficult. I write you love letters. That four-leaf clover in your desk is from me. I tell people I'm the wife!" Black Jack's face was frozen in shock. He wasn't reacting. "I am the little star next to that lonely one up in the sky, remember?" continued Pinoko, desperately. "I would travel alone to the coldest, most dangerous woods because I miss you. You once saved me from leukemia, though I'd secretly hoped for no cure so I could be placed in that older synthetic body for three days before I died, because you'd said you would marry me in that time, and I only wanted you to hold me once, ¡Acchon Burike!"

It was cinched for Black Jack. His breath hitched. "Pinoko? What did you do?"

"The djinn in Fez granted Pinoko this wish."

Black Jack couldn't believe that was true. But what other explanation was there? The more he looked at Pinoko, the more he realized she was truly her matured body. "Good God." He stepped closer.

"Is Doctor scared?" asked Pinoko. She herself was very scared. Her new body trembled.

"Terrified," replied the doctor. Pinoko's heart raced. "There are mysteries beyond what the human mind can imagine." Black Jack's eyes drifted toward the window in thought. Then, shaking his head, he returned his gaze to the sad-looking, trembling Pinoko. "How are you feeling?"

"All right, I think. Uhm. Is Doctor mad at Pinoko?" 

"Of course I am!"

Pinoko whined, "Why?"

"You went off and did this without me; you could have gotten killed! As it is, I don't even know if you're all right." He passed a hand over his face in agony. "Never, ever put your life at risk like that, do you understand?" Pinoko began to cry. "Pinoko." Black Jack approached her and sat down. "I've got to examine you and make sure everything's OK. This could be a sickness, just a coincidence."

"It's not!" cried Pinoko through fingers. "Pinoko's all big now, and I feel fine! I did this all for Doctor, and Doctor's a meanie-face!" She blushed and bit her lip.

"We've got to take precautions," said Black Jack, sighing. "You've been acting strange these last couple of weeks, so you've got to remember: did anybody give you anything strange to eat or drink?"

"No." 

"Then tell me what happened with the so-called djinn."

"Ah, that would ruin the mystery..." 

"Pinoko!"

"OK. Well, firstly, I listened in on Doctor's talk with the acupuncturist, and I started thinking maybe mystical things would help me grow. I started praying to all sorts of gods. Then in Fez I saw a pretty blue glass bottle and remembered a legend about a djinn. I rubbed it and a beautiful lady came out." Black Jack looked extremely skeptical. "It's true!" continued Pinoko. "Then, I asked her to grant me the wish. At first, she said there was a price, that I had to live a life without love, but when I told her I wouldn't pay she said she'd grant me it anyway. Then she said some private stuff I don't want to share with Doctor..."

"Tell me."

"I don't want to."

"You have to tell me everything," he ordered.

"¡Acchon Burike! She said love was the greatest thing in the world, but also the hardest."

Black Jack rubbed his eyes and muttered, "powdered drug, but that doesn't explain the growth..." Pinoko harrumphed and crossed her arms. "Well, until I figure this all out, I have to make sure you're healthy," said Black Jack. "I'm going to give you a thorough check-up, Pinoko. And nothing funny! You have to take this seriously."

"I wasn't going to do anything funny,” Pinoko mumbled.

"I'll be right back." As soon as Black Jack left the room, Pinoko excitedly admired her adult body. Wow, she was sexy. When the doctor returned with his suitcase of instruments, Pinoko saw a faint blush appear on his cheeks.  
  
He sat down and said very softly and seriously, "I'll be gentle. Open your mouth." Pinoko did so. Black Jack looked inside her mouth and saw everything normal. She had a full set of wisdom teeth, her tongue was clear, and her throat was clear. "Good. Now, open your eyes wide." There was no redness on the inside of her eyelids. Black Jack shone lights in her pretty green eyes and made her follow them in all directions. Everything was normal. "Very good." He checked her ears: perfect hearing. Her glands, they weren't swollen. She was very healthy, almost perfectly healthy. Pinoko smiled, taken over with relief. Now came the hard part. "OK, lay down for me." Unable to suppress a girly grin, Pinoko did as she was told. Looking up at the doctor, she felt in her body what she only imagined would happen, except it felt a thousand times better than she predicted. A warm feeling grew from her belly and crawled from there to her groin. Her breathing quickened. "Easy," murmured Black Jack, taking her pulse. "Relax." As she predicted the night before, the sound of his voice had a new effect on her: its depth intensified the warm, tingly feeling inside. His touch made her body ache with desire. She suddenly wanted him to lean over her reclined body, to come closer, much closer. "Now, I'm going to feel your organs," he said. He cleared his throat. "I'm going to have to undo your front, Pinoko, and see you naked from the waist up. Is this all right?"

Pinoko's softened eyes looked up at him lovingly and she nodded. His fingers deftly undid her laces, his face totally unfazed, but Pinoko could feel his tension - his eyes couldn't lie and they were shadowed with conflict. Very gently, he pushed away the material to reveal her bare chest and stomach. Nothing could have prepared Pinoko for how she'd feel being exposed to Dr. Black Jack. He maintained his stoicism but paused too long and gave himself away- his appreciation of her body became obvious. And all she could feel, all she could want was this... this intimacy and this trust. This invitation, from herself to him, this demonstration that he was worthy enough to see this part of her and touch it. The moment ended and with slightly cold fingers he grazed her belly. The touch was shocking and ticklish, so much that she couldn't suppress a childish giggle and curled up instinctively. Peeking at the doctor she saw he was trying not to smile.

"C'mon, Pinoko, straighten out," he urged. She lay prone again and Black Jack pressed his fingers into her stomach, feeling her intestines and everything else in there. Pinoko wished those same fingers would curl around her hips to hold her, but, not yet.

"Everything seems completely normal," Black Jack commented, more to himself than Pinoko. "It all grew overnight. The whole thing seems so... impossible." He didn't realize his fingers were warming themselves by staying on Pinoko's tummy until he looked into her eyes hooded in pleasure. He immediately retracted his hand and reached for his stethoscope. He put it on and brought the chest piece to the area between her breasts. Pinoko shuddered and gasped at how cold the chest piece felt. "I'm sorry," said Black Jack, and warmed up the chest piece with his palm. "Here, this should be better." He brought it back and Pinoko nodded. He listened to her heartbeat and realized it was racing, though it felt steady and strong enough. "You have to relax," he insisted. "Come on, now, sit up, let me hear your lungs." Pinoko did so and couldn't help gasp in surprise when Black Jack came close, practically chest-to- chest with her, to place one hand on her stomach and bring his arm around her to place the chest piece on her back. He turned his head to look off to the floor. "Now, take a deep breath." He was so close. His scent overwhelming her, she felt the vibrations of his voice close to her ear. She was dizzy.

"I can't."

Black Jack scoffed and tapped the chest piece against her back insistently, jolting her. "Cooperate!"

Pinoko took the deepest breath she could.

"Good. Exhale. Again."

It forced her to breathe his scent in over and over, and she became more aware of his hand on her, steadying her, of his arm around her, holding her, of his chest barely grazing hers- he was all hard, angular, made of muscle and sharp shoulders- and his face was so close that if she just turned her head she could kiss his cheek...

"Doctor," Pinoko breathed. "I feel light-headed. I have this... strange feeling." 

"How so?" Black Jack's voice was wobbly.

"Mostly between my legs," she replied. "It's like an ache, but it also feels good, I can't explain."

Black Jack had to retreat. He backed away and took off his stethoscope, and only caught a glimpse of Pinoko's flushed cheeks, lustful gaze, and the way her body arched after him, mourning the loss of his proximity. He realized she was so completely new, so unbelievably inexperienced, that she had absolutely no control over what was happening in her body. In a way, it was very good, it meant she was very healthy. But, he questioned how morally wrong it was to do this to poor Pinoko, the little girl he loved with all his heart, his own creation, his surrogate daughter! The 'wife' joking had always been just that, a joke: a joke he had permitted because he knew Pinoko could never grow, and so allowed her to indulge in out of pity and also because it bonded him to her endearingly. But, now, Pinoko was a woman. A whole woman. A very beautiful woman, Black Jack thought and then punished his own mind. The whole situation was so bizarre. Honestly, how could magic genies be real? But how had Pinoko been able to adopt an organic body? One that perfectly resembled the childlike one? Black Jack felt like his thoughts were going to tear him up. He mourned for his little girl, but he had to accept that she was an adult now, an adult lusting after him and for what reason, really? Because he was the first male she ever encountered once she had adult hormones and fully- developed sex organs? That was certainly the most sound, rational and viable explanation. But, something nagging in Black Jack's brain thought that it was because her mind had spent the last few years attracted to him that now her adult body was following suit. Either way, it was completely wrong now to do what he planned as far as examining Pinoko, and that was to examine the state of her reproduction organs: a full gynecological exam, as it was that most obvious thing about her besides bones and muscles that had changed. Her brain, lungs, heart and intestines were all the same. Well, he thought, he'd just have to take her to a gynecologist.

"That's normal for a woman sometimes," he muttered stand-offishly, his gaze avoiding hers. "Now, let me check your reflexes."

"Just when is it normal?" Pinoko replied. The huskiness in her voice startled Black Jack. In her eyes he saw that the lazy desire had turned into passion.

"Pinoko, what's most important now is your health," he rasped in a surprisingly deep voice. He cleared his throat. "You have to control yourself, it's making your body react in ways you can't handle. Think about something disgusting. Think about curry that was sitting all day out in the sun!" Pinoko blinked a few times and made a face. "Good, shake yourself a little, rub your arms, and stop looking at me!"

"I'm sorry."

"It's all right, it's my fault. Here, tie the nightgown back up, I'm going to examine your reflexes. Then you're going to take a nap... and I'm going to have a very strong drink."

"I don't want to take a nap."

"C'mon." Black Jack motioned for her to do it and she did. Black Jack took a much-needed deep breath and sighed.

"OK." He checked all her reflexes, subtly marveling at how well-proportioned her limbs were. The sting of desire still lingered in him.

"Everything is normal, Pinoko. Now, sleep." 

"But I'm not tired," whined Pinoko. 

"I'll give you a sleeping pill." 

"I hate those."

"Then, lay back down, rest, and meditate the way I've taught you."

Before Black Jack left the room, Pinoko called to him softly: "Is Doctor happy?" 

"Hm?"

"Are you happy I became my true age?" Pinoko asked.

"I'm happy you're healthy," Black Jack replied and shut the door.

For the next two hours, the doctor immersed himself in whiskey and tobacco, drenched in sweat and panic, and his hands turned ice-cold from nerves. Nothing had affected him this much since he was a child and longed to murder his father. What had happened to Pinoko? Black Jack heard soft moaning from his bedroom. Swaying with drink, his tobacco pipe dangling from his lips, he stood and made his way to the room and opened the door. There lay Pinoko asleep on her belly, but... writhing. Before Black Jack could fly over to see what was hurting her, Pinoko moaned, "...love you... so much, Doctor. Oohhh..." The doctor froze in place, pipe falling out of his open mouth. Pinoko was having erotic dreams. Of him! Her legs were lazily spread, hips sporadically rocking into the mattress, fists buried in the sheets, cheek against the pillow. Her complexion was flushed, her expression a mix of pleasure and longing, and she whined softly. "Please..." he heard her huff, as she arched her hips. "God Almighty," Black Jack groaned and shoved his face into his hands, running fingers through his hair.

"Pinoko," he called, voice hoarse. "Pinoko!" She only groaned. He came close to her, using every ounce of will despite his inebriated state to focus, to remember his beloved little girl. He sat down and put his hand on Pinoko's back. She awoke with a start. She was breathing heavily. She turned to him. "Doctor!" She looked frightened.

"Shh, everything's OK."

Pinoko blushed a deep red and looked down at herself all disheveled. "What's happening?" she asked.

"We have to talk," said Black Jack. "Why don't you come into the kitchen with me and I'll make you tea?" Tears streamed down Pinoko's cheeks. She had no idea these physical urges would be so strong and confusing, and that she'd find herself chained to her desire for Black Jack, who didn't seem like he was going to respond. At the same time, her mind was so used to him as her guardian, her senses always knew him as her guide, protector, defender, her knight in shining... scalpels. She needed his comfort. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry. I just want Doctor to hold me. Help me, Doctor!" She threw her arms open to him desperately.

"Pinoko-chan, I can't like this," said the doctor, covering his face again, "it'll hurt and confuse you." His gaze met hers. He urged her: "Come, take me hand, I need to explain things to you. Don't worry, you're still my little girl." Pinoko nodded, eyes averted, red from crying, and took Black Jack's hand. "Good girl." He led her into the kitchen, sat her down, and set about getting her hot towels for the tension in her shoulders, and preparing a nice tea.

While he wasn't looking, Pinoko mischievously stole a cigarette, lit it and tried inhaling. She started coughing maniacally, deeply regretting her decision. "Blech!" She made a typical-Pinoko face. "This is disgusting! How do people like this?" 

"Why would you try that, you idiot?" said Black Jack. 

"I thought now that I'm older that it would help my nerves," Pinoko replied, pouting. Black Jack shook his head and took the cigarette from her, smoking it himself.

"You're still the same," he mumbled as he went about preparing things. 

"Of courshe I am!" Soon enough, he had Pinoko sitting comfortably with towels and warm tea, though she still looked worried and forlorn. "I never had this talk with you because I never imagined you'd need to know these things," explained Black Jack, sighing deeply, "but I need you to listen carefully. All right, here it is. When a child grows to an adult, he or she develops a surge in hormones that leads to totally different feelings. For girls, as you know, their breasts grow and they start feeling tingly pleasurable feelings between their legs; they also begin to bleed from between their legs once a month for a few days."

"WHAT?"

"Calm down. That's because their bodies are getting ready to have babies. It happens to every woman, unless something goes wrong." Black Jack considered mentioning Megumi but decided very strongly against it. "Anyway, with boys, their voices become deeper, they get hair all over the place, and they also get tingly pleasurable feeling between their legs. Except, what happens when they get those feelings is that their penises become long and stiff, because a lot of blood rushes there. OK, Pinoko, this is going to sound very strange to you, but it's something that happens every day, and it's the only way to make a baby: usually, the normal thing is for the man's stiff penis to go inside the woman's vagina."

"Wha...?" Pinoko's mouth opened, and she looked horrified. "NO! HOW?!"

"Don't blow out my eardrums! Yes. They rock back and forth together, the man and woman, and then some liquid shoots out of the man's penis and stays inside the woman and that's how a baby is formed inside her. Everyone who's a parent has done it." Pinoko blanched completely. Black Jack took a long drag of his cigarette. A very long one. "It sounds awful and strange, doesn't it? Yet it's the most natural thing in the world. You get used to the idea. It's supposed to feel incredibly good. That's why there are so many babies being born every day! So, when a girl likes a boy and vice-versa, it's because they like the personality, but primarily it's because their body is longing to connect in that way to the other person."

"I-I never imagined... with Doctor..." Pinoko stammered.

"Of course not!" Black Jack frowned. "Children can't feel those things for anyone, and adults don't feel those things for children." He purposefully didn't mention pedophilia. That would have put poor Pinoko right over the edge. "It's only for adults. It's for people who are married. Traditionally, the first time a man and woman do that is on the night of their wedding, and they keep doing it for the rest of their lives." Pinoko blushed and looked around her ashamedly, as though there were witnesses around.

"So." Pinoko swallowed with difficulty. "So, when I told people I was Doctor's wife..."

"Obviously, people knew that you were just playing." Black Jack shook his head. "And you were only thinking of the outward romance, Pinoko: you wanted me to fawn on you, pay you attention, show you affection, buy you things, and make you feel like you were my one special girl. Don't get me wrong, those are all parts of being married too. And because I never imagined you'd grow into adulthood, I let you be happy in that ignorance. I felt it was the least I could do for you, and besides, I liked fawning over you. But..." Black Jack averted his eyes for a moment and took a drag pensively. "But, being married is about following through on that tingly, achey feeling and connecting. It's called having sex. And now that you're older..." He looked straight into her eyes, "you're bound to want it. That explains what your body is going through. But, what's most important is this: sexuality is a private, personal thing for every individual. No one has the right to use you or manipulate you through those feelings. The body is sacred: I raised you to know that, I'll give myself that much. There are people who want to take advantage of others. You must fight against that type of hatred. You fight for your right to choose who you're intimate with, who you'd give such a private thing over to, and never to someone who doesn't love you, or can't love, or who's looking for physical pleasure rather than emotional commitment."

"Is Doctor afraid that he's one of those types of people?" asked Pinoko very seriously. Black Jack was impressed with her. Black Jack was impressed with her.

"My father was," he replied simply.

"Does that mean you are too?" Pinoko's face was so innocent and open.

"I'm a broken person," Black Jack replied quietly. Pinoko's sadness was the most horrible thing he could see, and right then she looked so sad.

"Do you believe Pinoko loves you?" Pinoko whispered.

"I do," replied the doctor. He hadn't forgotten what she told him about the genie. He reached over and took one of Pinoko's lovely hands in his scarred ones, gazing at it and stroking it softly.

"Do you love Pinoko, Doctor?" asked Pinoko. Tears formed in Black Jack's eyes. "What do you think?" he breathed. He looked up into shining green eyes. "I can't offer you a secure life, you know that," he said. "Looks have never impressed me, but they impress others, and you're beautiful. You could choose from any man in the world. I'm an outlaw. Scarred inside and out. Society shuns me and I'm pretty sure it always will. Though, for you, the soul that brings me joy every day, though too often I scold you and deny you indulgences: I would give everything I have. If you became my wife, I'd continue loving you the way I do, try harder to make you happy, and I'd share with you... my intimacy, and my promise that I would never share it with any other woman. Only you. But, Pinoko..." He squeezed her hand. His eyes were worried the way Pinoko knew them to be during major internal conflicts. "It is your life, it's your choice, and I can only offer you everything I have but I could never force you. I'm begging you to consider it. This is all happening quickly, but that's just how things go. I couldn't live knowing that you're unhappy, that you wish you were with someone else. You have to give this time and a lot of thought. Please."

Black Jack knew asking Pinoko to give things time and thought was pretty useless, but he tried anyway, smiling weakly. Tears were streaming down Pinoko's cheeks until she sobbed into her hands, "Doctor loves Pinoko! Pinoko never thought she'd hear such things!"

"Of course I love you," Black Jack said, and it was so soft he might not have even said it all.

"Thank you," said Pinoko. She looked into the doctor's eyes and Black Jack knew her answer was yes. Black Jack sighed. He opened his arms. She crawled into them. "Kiss me once, for now, please?"

Black Jack rolled his eyes before tilting Pinoko's jaw and gently pressing lips against hers. When the breathless kiss ended, Pinoko swooned, coyly turning her head to hide her bliss. Then, excitedly, she jumped out from her fiancé's arms and said: "Breakfast! Has Doctor had it yet?" Black Jack shook his head, dizzy with love in spite of himself. "Well! What would you like?" Pinoko slipped on her apron, which was way too small on her at this point. She walked to the fridge to see it was fully stocked. "Anything Doctor wishes, Pinoko will provide!"

Black Jack bit his lip. "I don't doubt it," he said, more huskily than he'd intended. "But, for now: ochazuke."


	3. l'amour

"Acchon Burike," Pinoko mumbled as she ripped yet another stocking, sitting on her bed. How did women on TV make it look so easy, slipping on stockings, rolling them seductively up the leg and attaching them to garter strings? In real-life, it was proving most difficult and not at all seductive. But, Pinoko was trying! Trying while she ripped holes in the sheer material.

She and Black Jack were getting married in a month's time, after which they'd go on honeymoon to Paris. It had been a few weeks since the morning she woke up as a beautiful twenty-year-old and got engaged to the doctor, and she practiced every day getting used to her newly-adult body. Her fiancé wasn't outwardly any different, continuing day-to-day his Byronic life, in the study or in the operating room of some hospital or getting into trouble: distant but caring, tortured yet certain of his ethics. Brilliant in so many intricate ways. That was Doctor. Pinoko sighed in pleasure. Just thinking about him gave her butterflies. She wanted to get all the adult-things right, to impress him. With her now, he was being extra tender. Already, life had changed so much. First, Black Jack gave her money to buy herself wardrobe and accessories and makeup and beauty-supplies. She was still getting used to little things: wearing a bra, shaving her legs, plucking her eyebrows, putting on lipstick. A week after her morph she experienced her first menses, which was tremendously scary, and required a lot of Black Jack instructing and explaining and insisting that it was normal. Mostly, she noticed how much stronger her physical senses were, being an adult- she was learning very quickly how to read and interpret complex ideas. She had a better sense how to control her emotions and think things through. She could stay awake much longer than before. Her sense of taste improved and she was able to put together much tastier dishes.Her laugh was low and rich, her hips swayed when she walked. She was all woman, and it was great, even if at times really complicated and difficult too. Best of all, she was enjoying how wonderful it felt to be the object of her fiancé's affections, how natural it felt to flirt with Black Jack now that they were on equal physical-stages and have him flirt back, consciously or not, and dote on her in little ways that seduced and committed her. Pinoko couldn't wait till their wedding night. Admittedly, she was very nervous. But, something inside made her feel that doing that strange thing, as Doctor had said, was the most natural thing in the world. Though she was still getting used to the idea, she believed him when he'd said it would feel good. The urges she had for him felt good, though they were often difficult to calm.

She fell back on to the bed, arms above her, and sighed. Yes, they were very difficult. Slowly, achingly, she lifted her calf into the air. She let her fingers skim gently up her naked thigh, under her knee, and grip the edge of the stubborn stocking. She brought it down as she brought up her whole leg. Yes, it worked. Then, sheer, luxurious silk hugging her thigh, she brought garter string and edge together. No rips. "I did it," she breathed, grinning indulgently. She lay prone. I _did it, Doctor. Now,_ _help me?_ That warm dizziness was back, that feeling. It wasn't unpleasant, yet it smoldered. Deep inside, driving her insane. Making her act strange, making her bold.

"Doctor?" she moaned. 

"Mm?" she heard back. 

"Will you help Pino- I mean, me? Please?" She was trying to stop speaking in the third-person. Black Jack said he didn't mind either way. He also whispered that once they were married, she could call him his real name, Kuro'o, but only when in private.

Black Jack's slender form appeared in the door. "What's wrong, Pinoko-chan?" He tried looking over her tousled form with as much neutrality as possible, but she caught the tiny spark behind his eyes. Was it cruel to torture him? Perhaps.

"Can Doctor help me take the stocking off?"

Black Jack glared incredulously.

"I don't want it to rip!" Pinoko explained, fluttering her lashes.

"No," said Black Jack flatly. He pointed to the other stocking. "Put the other one on perfectly then remove it perfectly, and then I'll remove the original one."

"It's going to rip!"

"It will, if you believe it will. Focus. The ones you've ripped are taking up space in the bathroom. You've got to stitch every one back up, I'm not giving you more money to buy new ones."

"Nooo..." Pouting, she took the other stocking and began, very carefully, putting it on. "Doctor can't possibly know how difficult this is," she complained, meticulously stretching the material just so. She lifted her bare leg. "It's the same as performing surgery!" 

"We'll see."

Once again, Pinoko was able to get the stocking up to her thigh, no rips in sight, and gently, she tied stocking and garter together. "Now I've got to take it off. Acchon Burike." 

"Or you can admire them while they're on," suggested Black Jack.

"You're right." Pinoko took a good look at how sexy she looked. She pushed herself up to her knees and admired her legs. Then she realized she was in her underwear and garter belt in front of Black Jack. She looked up to see him looking away, a faint blush tinting his cheek. "OK, now I'm going to be extra careful taking this one off. Look, Doctor." Pinoko lay back and rolled the stocking down and off. It was much easier to remove stockings than it was to put them on, and Pinoko thanked her gods because now Black Jack had to keep his end of the bargain. Sure enough, he appeared looming over her, his grin part arrogance part affection. "What's the trick, then?" he asked. Then he ran slim, warm fingers under her thigh and Pinoko forgot how to speak. "Hm?" he pressed.

"Uh... I... I don't-"

"You'd better tell me," he unhooked the stocking from the garter, "or you may lose this one."

"You have to... be gentle... and slow."

His other hand came around the same thigh and Pinoko's breath caught. With both hands, very gently, he rolled the material and started pulling it down toward him. "Like this?" he whispered. Carefully, he rolled the material till it reached Pinoko's knee. "Now what?"

"Don't tease me," Pinoko whispered, winking as she tried hiding her red cheeks.

"You think I'm teasing?" Black Jack said, eyebrow raised. "I'm only a surgeon, I could easily botch this up."

"I trust Doctor's skills," said Pinoko. She closed her eyes.

"OK, stay very still," said Black Jack. Slowly, excruciatingly, he rolled the stocking away from her knee. Pinoko sighed, eyes still closed, and put her tongue between her teeth in a grin of pleasure. Of its own accord, by Black Jack's subtle urging, her calf rose up in the air. Then, in one sweeping movement, the doctor peeled off the perfectly-kept stocking. Pinoko opened her eyes and caught his burning gaze. He turned to the leg he was still holding, and ghosted a kiss onto it. Unable to control herself, Pinoko whined in want. Black Jack gently placed her leg back on the bed. "We did it. Good girl."

Closing her eyes as she endured the burning blush on her cheeks, Pinoko whispered, "thank you, Doctor."

He left her room. As soon as he was gone Pinoko sighed and ran hands through her hair. She let her hands roam to where Black Jack's had been moments before, and she could feel the ghost of his touch, the warmth, and felt the tingling that ran through her body. She pulled out from under her bed a pack of filtered cigarettes, which she had bought secretly. She lit one, indulging in the feeling of smoke in her lungs and nicotine in her veins, as the only way she knew to satiate the craving she felt for Doctor.

Meanwhile, Black Jack was in the bathroom dousing himself in freezing water.

Everyone at the wedding, which was held at the Meiji Shrine in shinto-tradition (because Pinoko had wept, wailed and begged for Doctor to arrange it that way until, gnashing his teeth, he finally did) was curious about Dr. Black Jack's mysterious bride. Few remembered that he had had for years now a little-girl assistant, really a twenty-year-old teratoid cystoma, named "Pinoko" (the same name as the bride) who was always either helping in the background of an operation or gripping tight the ends of his cloak most times he traveled; those few were prudent individuals who weren't saying anything, merely smiling and going along with the strange circumstances of the wedding.

It became obvious that they were close, that they must have been close for a long time, that this was no new relationship- the way Pinoko wept during the ceremony and looked at Black Jack with adoring eyes, and the tender way he wiped her tears and whispered comforts so intimately- no one had ever seen the cold, greedy Doctor Black Jack be so rawly loving, no one knew he'd had it in him. Yet, still, people never imagined it was the same strange little girl who'd been living with him for two years. They murmured and whispered about this beautiful, young European-looking woman, and gossiped about how on earth she would have agreed to marry the aloof surgeon. Though many people were happy for him, those same many were also very jealous. Many women present, even Megumi Kisaragi, were a little heartbroken to see the doctor finally snagged away. Many other doctors wondered why they couldn't land a wife this gorgeous. By the reception, Pinoko was too thrilled to care about any negative buzz, too delighted that finally, now, she truly was "the wife!" as she'd been calling herself ever since she could speak. That this was their wedding (!!) and that she was dressed up so elegantly, and that people, young and old, especially those who'd been patients of Doctor and also the sons and daughters of all the other doctors and politicians, were paying her attention and making her feel like an elegant socialite. People went on to her about her beauty and also about the genius of her husband. Pinoko did her best dodging questions about her past and her origins, but, it was difficult. Meanwhile, Black Jack, with a scowl, endured the drunkenness of many of the men, some of whom kept clapping his back and winking when Pinoko was mentioned. But, mostly, he was accosted by many kind former patients and listened to all their stories about recovery, etc. and how much the Doctor had changed their lives for the better.

...Until Megumi Kisaragi came to his side and Black Jack sighed in his head and wondered what Pinoko had been thinking in sending her an invitation, as this could prove awkward and painful for her. But, he realized she must have worked hard to be able to come, as her job as a ship's doctor was so grueling, and appreciated the effort. A little piece of him would always love the woman he'd saved yet stripped of all feminine organs, leaving her masculine and their romantic bond rendered torn. They bowed respectfully to one another. 

"Congratulations, I'm very happy for you and Pinoko, Black-Jack-sensei," Megumi said, smiling. Black Jack nodded, "thank you. I'm very grateful you came, Megumi-sensei." He figured it was most respectful to use the intimacy of a first-name basis with her. He had, after all, at one time sworn their kiss was eternal. "I imagine it must have been difficult to get time off and travel here."

"I wouldn't miss this for anything,” assured Megumi. “I'm very glad to see you looking happy."

"I look happy?"

Megumi laughed. "Yes, and I have to say: it suits you."

Black Jack frowned and offered Megumi a glass of champagne.

"How did you do it, Doctor?" Megumi asked. "How did you make her so seamless? I would never think her body isn't real."

"It is real," said Black Jack, swigging back a whiskey of his own, "I had nothing to do with it."

"How could that be!?"

"I'm just as puzzled. But I didn't lay a finger on her, she came up with it all by herself. That's a real body she grew. She woke up one day like this. It was a medical miracle I still can't figure out."

"But that's..." Megumi covered her open mouth in amazement. "You mean to say the little girl I met found a way to grow an adult body?" Black Jack nodded and lit his pipe. Megumi smiled. "She is truly worthy of you, if I may say, Kuro'o." Black Jack grinned very sincerely. "That means a great deal to me." Just then, Pinoko flurried over. When Black Jack saw that she'd spotted him and Megumi talking, he prepared for the worst, expecting Pinoko to cause a scene. Instead, Pinoko merely threw her arms around Megumi, causing the latter's glasses to askew.

"Oh, Kisaragi-sensei, I'm so happy you could come to our wedding, fank you!" Pinoko gripped her hands and looked as though she were about to cry in gratitude. Admittedly, she was a little on the tipsy side, which explained her reversion to her old lisp.

"It was my pleasure." Megumi adjusted her glasses. "You look beautiful, Pinoko-chan. Congratulations to you both." Pinoko, still childish in many ways, pirouetted in place to show off her beautiful gown. But, this made her tipsiness worse and she stumbled into Megumi's arms. Megumi helped her straighten up.

"Wow, you're so tender, Kisaragi-sensei," Pinoko said, hiccuping, "you've got a touch as gentle as a woman's. Hm, you know," she turned to a blanched and open-mouthed Black Jack, "Doctor, you should let me play matchmaker for Kisaragi-sensei and help him find a weally pwetty girlfriend! What do you say?" Black Jack merely brooded, and Pinoko continued speaking to Megumi, "He'll say no, but you just leave it to me. I'm the wife! Anyway, isn't it wonderful I have a body now that matches me?"

"Very." Megumi and Black Jack exchanged a glance of understanding: Pinoko still didn't know Megumi was a woman, but still believed she was the "brother" of an ex-girlfriend of Black Jack's. "Really, Pinoko-chan, I think you outsmarted the Doctor on that one," Megumi continued, winking.

Pinoko hiccuped. "That's right." 

"Pinoko, how much champagne have you had?" scolded Black Jack.

"Just as much as that time Doctor said he wouldn't save that other teratoid cyshtoma!" Hiccup. "The boy one. And then you tried to! But Pinoko fell asleep while guarding the op." Hiccup, "So the other meanie surgeons came in and made you kill him and put the parts in that... gooey stuff... culture medium." Hic. "Kiriko-sensei!" she suddenly exclaimed, still in the arms of Megumi. "Fank you for coming to my and the Doctor's wedding!" And there stood Dr. Kiriko, a drink in hand, a sardonic grin on his gaunt face as he registered the scene before him.

"To the Doctor, Pinoko-chan, who, drunk one night and wanting really cute company, saved yet another life and graced the world with your charming presence!" Dr. Kiriko raised his glass to Pinoko and she raised hers back. Black Jack frowned. This was turning out to be far too long of a night.

"Pinoko... Shh... Pinoko. Wake up."

Black Jack shook his new wife awake. Childishly, she moaned protest and curled deeper against his shoulder. "You'll be furious I didn't wake you." warned Black Jack, "we're overlooking Paris. There's the Eiffel Tower."

Pinoko jolted awake and pressed herself against the airplane window. "Oh, Doctor!" she exclaimed, looking out at sunset springtime-Paris. "It's so wonderful! Oh, I can just imagine what it'll be like, strolling the streets of Montmartre, crossing the bridges of the Seine, smoking in cafés, going to the theatre, ooh, kissing in the rain in the Tuileries gardens!"

"How do you know so much about Paris?" Black Jack asked.

Pinoko turned to her husband. "I read about it in your library. Oh, and in Vogue-Japan Magazine. I ordered a subscription!"

"Cancel it immediately."

"Why?!"

"I'm not letting editors know where I live and what my wife reads. You can buy the issues in the store."

Pinoko stuck her bottom lip out.

They landed. Pinoko, pink with pleasure, arranged her little cloche hat on her head and put on her lace gloves, with the grace and elegance of a lady. She looked perfect. Black Jack's heart tripped over itself a little. Pinoko saw him hiding a smile, and kissed him on the cheek, then they disembarked the plane. It was a pink and purple dusk in Paris, rainclouds having cleared only an hour before. The streets were still slick and dewy, and the air had that distinct smell of fresh bread. Everyone waiting for a taxi at the airport guessed the pair were on their honeymoon. Pinoko was all a twitter, a little punchy from over-exhaustion (14 hours on a plane after a long wedding was a lot for anybody, and she had a brand-new body she was getting used to). Black Jack, always cautious, always reserved and trying not to draw attention to himself, was finding it difficult to deal with people eyeing not only the pretty Pinoko but the Louis Vuitton suitcase she was carrying. Pinoko had insisted on this ridiculously expensive and flashy brand for reasons Black Jack didn't agree with at all. The idea was not to let people know they could afford luxury. But he couldn't refuse her anymore, he was too in-love. He sighed.

In the taxi to the hotel, he watched his Pinoko gaze out the window blissfully, listened as she pointed out the places she knew, and answered all her questions. He'd been to Paris many times, but it never seemed romantic before. Not the way people raved about. Until now, as he held Pinoko in his arms. She was beginning to get sleepy again. But, when Black Jack thought she'd doze again, as the taxi wound around streets, she didn't. Instead, lazily, she reached up and placed the most beautiful kiss against his lips. Normally, Black Jack would have pushed her away and reproached her for public intimacy, but now, he found himself ensnared. Only two months ago, Pinoko was the aching thorn in his heavy heart, an anomaly he knew he loved more than anyone but didn't know what to do with. She was the reminder that he had a penchant for playing God. He was always treating her like a child despite all her mournful tears that he treat her like the adult she was, and ignored her pleas to give her a body that matched her mind. He'd known he loved her, most deeply, but it had been turning into a strange psychologically-driven pedophilia, because they both knew the love was different than father-daughter and beyond friendship. Pinoko's consciousness really had been eighteen-years old when Black Jack had put her in a five-year-old's body. She was an adult this whole time. Now she had a body congruent with her soul. Gathering her in his arms so as to deepen their desperate kissing, his last cognizant thought was to hope that his beloved was finally feeling some of the happiness she so deserved. They didn't stop till they got to the hotel, by which time they were breathless and only dimly aware of the surroundings, dizzy, entranced, completely absorbed in one another. Thoughts and feelings went unsaid, spoken only by the ardency of their caresses. "Come," he breathed, kissing her wrist. "Let's go up to bed."

The taxi driver chuckled when Black Jack handed over the francs. "I was getting horny seeing you both through the rear-view mirror," he muttered in French, with a grin, to Black Jack.

"Good, now I know we're in France," replied Black Jack in equally-perfect French, scowling. "How did you know I could understand you?"

"You're the famous Docteur Black Jack! You're a legendary figure. I knew you'd have to know French."

Black Jack sighed. "Well, then I'll ask you to stay tactful about my stay here: mostly through your word as an honorable gentleman, and a little bit through this." He handed the driver 200 extra francs. "But it'll be mostly through that, won't it?"

The taxi driver chuckled. "Merci, Monsieur. Your secrets are safe." He drove away.

"All the people I despise will know I'm here by tomorrow," muttered Black Jack grumpily.

Pinoko clung to him as they entered the beautiful luxury hotel, exhausted yet still aroused by the doctor's kisses, excited yet overwhelmed by how different everything was. She was sleepy as she and Black Jack were escorted to their balcony suite, as she lazily used the bathroom and washed up a little, and when the bellhops finally left, she fell into her husband's arms and nodded off. "Sh, c'mon Pinoko you've got to get out of your clothes," urged Black Jack. "Wake up."

"You undress me. Please?"

Black Jack sighed frustratingly. He undressed her and lay her on the bed while he went and washed his hands and went rummaging in the luggage for her her nightgown. By the time he came back to her she was snoozing again. He woke her and she cooperated as he undressed her and put on her silk negligé. She giggled dazedly as he removed her stockings and slid her garter belt off, awakened with the memories of that day a few weeks before when they almost... when Black Jack slipped off her stocking and she went crazy with desire. "I love you. Kuro'o." 

Black Jack smiled and dropped a kiss onto her thigh. "Keep saying that and I won't be able to hold back making love to you."

"That sounds beautiful." Pinoko's eyes slid shut again and she yawned softly, carding a hand through her husband's silky hair. "Is that sex?"

"It's a pretty way of saying it."

"I want to do that, Doctor," Pinoko moaned, trying to open her sleepy eyes. She pulled Black Jack up to her. "Pinoko is awake, don't worry... Pinoko is..." Black Jack supported himself on his forearms, and kissed her forehead. "No, we're both exhausted. You wouldn't be able to stay awake through it."

"Has Doctor ever...? No, never mind." Pinoko opened her eyes and they were tinged with a hint of fear this time. "I'd rather not know if you've done it before, with another woman. I couldn't bear it."

Black Jack shook his head sleepily. "Everyone thinks I have, with women all over the world," he said, voice low and raspy, "but the truth is I never have."

"Becaushe you didn't want to, or becaushe you couldn't for shome weason?" Pinoko blinked slowly, trying to stay awake. She was reverting back to her babyish talking.

"A bit of both." Black Jack couldn't help himself and lovingly pushed bangs out of her face the way he used to when she was little. "My mother's example taught me to respect women. My father's example taught me that meaningless sex blinds men and turns them into something worse than animals. Heh, even animals know to protect their mates and their offspring." He scowled at the memory of his disgraceful and disloyal father. "I couldn't find it in me to share something so intimate with any woman, until you woke up one morning in my bed as a twenty-year-old."

"Pinoko is sho happy to be the one." Smiling contentedly, Pinoko ran a gentle hand along the base of his neck. "Pinoko thinks Doctor dishappointed many beautiful women!"

"I don't care if I did," Black Jack breathed against her mouth, then they shared another mind- numbing kiss. It became so hot, that in the haze of desire Black Jack noted that Pinoko's legs had spread and their groins were rubbing together softly. He pulled back quickly. "Why did you stop?" Pinoko huffed, looking at him with sex. There was nothing little-girlish about her now, anymore. Legs spread, face flushed, green eyes smoldering in lust. She reached for him and it took every ounce of his will-- to remind himself that he loved Pinoko, dammit, and wouldn't take advantage of her-- to resist.

"Tomorrow," he swore, voice drenched in desire, "I'll teach you. I'll show you, and we can be together in ways that leave us trembling in pleasure. Wait till tomorrow."

"But, what do I do with this feeling?" And, Pinoko sounded more woman than any woman Black Jack ever met, her low voice sounded like it was coming from a deeply sacred place within her. It scared Black Jack a little. Pinoko had always been highly prone to emotional fits and passions, and because she'd had a child's body it used to come off as tantrums. But, this. This matched the Pinoko he always knew, except now as an adult she was so much more powerful. "Please, my love," she beseeched, her trembling fingers started exploring between her own open thighs. And, by Buddha's honorable name, there was the cincher. There was no doubt left in Black Jack as what he should do.

"You'll tell me when to stop, Pinoko. Swear you will. Now."

"I swear," she breathed. Black Jack leaned down again and whispered, "I love you," before kissing Pinoko's mouth searingly, then moving to her neck as she gasped and moaned. He moved to her throat then down to her chest. He kept the negligé on, but moved down to where her thighs parted. He kissed the inside of her legs as they spread, her pelvis, pressed ravenous kisses to the dip below her knee. Pinoko whimpered, trembling now in desire. Black Jack pushed up the negligé a little, exposing her tummy, glancing up at her with smoldering eyes, and dropped desperate little kisses on her naked stomach, and she buried her fingers softly in his hair. Then, slowly, torturously, he moved his delicate mouth down, down to her cute little underwear, which was already damp and drenched in sex and he, more aroused than ever in his whole life, he kissed her there and Pinoko moaned low and long and threw her head back. Black Jack chuckled and blew softly, kissed and kissed over the material until he tasted her most intimate secret, then curled his fingers around the panties' band and began slowly and softly to pull them down. But, he paused. "Promise you're not holding back from stopping me."

"No, don't stop, please, Doctor... I love you, I've never felt so close to you."

"Listen to me carefully," Black Jack's voice was hoarse, "you're going to feel like you're climbing a feeling, a pleasure. You'll reach the top and you'll lose yourself for an instant. You'll lose control, and moan, scream, cry, etc. with how good it feels, so don't be frightened, it's what's supposed to happen." He ghosted another kiss on her thigh. A tear of joy fell down Pinoko's cheek, and Black Jack's heart felt like it would burst, he never thought he'd know such intimacy in his cursed lifetime.

"I love you, Kuro'o," she whispered.

"I love you too. All ready?"

Pinoko nodded, combing his hair with her fingers. Black Jack pulled off her panties and beheld her little spider-flower. Driven by desire, he pressed his mouth to it, to her, to Pinoko, and dragged his tongue all the way from her soaking wet slit to her clitoris. Pinoko cried out in a harsh, ragged cry, and made the doctor's member twitch and emit pre- ejaculation fluid, made him groan in pleasure, grip her thighs and start to full-on eat her out, hips unwillingly rocking against the mattress in frenetic need. It's needless to say that because Dr. Black Jack's whole life revolved around his reverence for the human body and human life, and because Pinoko was so raw and beautiful in her innocence and unwavering love for him, that their chemistry and their sex was arduous, fecund, real, and sure enough, though they weren't even having intercourse during this first encounter, they both climaxed like this, at roughly the same moment, Pinoko crying out, panting and mewling at her beloved doctor tasting her most secret place, and Black Jack out of the sheer passion of the whole act and his frottage against the mattress hearing Pinoko crying his name. By the time they calmed, his head resting on her tummy, his arms around her, Pinoko sobbed a little, sweaty and shaking...

"I didn't know... I never knew... it would be like that..."

Black Jack swallowed, controlling his hoarse breathing. He kissed her skin. "How are you?"

Pinoko whimpered, stroking his hair, sighing contentedly. "...'M sho shleepy, Doctor. I- it's like... Pinoko can't move. I feel perfect."

Black Jack forced himself up and slid his hand up to her heartbeat. It was pounding, still, but it was growing slower and even.

"Did it feel just as good for you, my love?" Pinoko asked innocently, trying hard to keep her eyes open. Black Jack kissed her hand and nodded. 

"Was that sex?" 

"The beginning of it."

Pinoko blinked herself awake, grinning, and said excitedly, "Only the beginning!? ¡Acchon Burike! Hurry, Doctor, let's continue till the end!" as she unabashedly wrapped arms around his neck. "No," insisted Black Jack, grinning in spite of himself. "That's enough for now. We're overhexhausted, and we need rest. You, especially." Pinoko pouted but her tired eyes were sliding closed.

"OK, OK. One last kiss?"

"You sure? It'll taste salty-sweet."

"That's OK." Pinoko beckoned to Black Jack and he leaned down and kissed her lips. She whimpered. "I don't mind, it's the evidence of my love for you, beneath your own burning kiss."

"Where did you learn to talk like that?" Black Jack softly tickled her skin and she giggled in the lovable way he always remembered her to.

"I don't know, maybe from Vogue-Japan, which Doctor doesn't want delivered to the house anymore."

"Not a chance. Now, sleep. I'm going to take a bath." He kissed her forehead. "Sweet dreams, Pinoko-chan."

"Pinoko doesn't want to fall asleep alone!" 

"Then wait up for me. I know you'll fall asleep, though."

"I won't." Pinoko crossed her arms in determination, holding back a yawn. "I'll be very awake, just you wait!" A half-hour later, Black Jack came out of the bath and Pinoko was sound asleep. He smiled, got carefully into bed next to her and before drifting off into the sleep of gods, thanked a magic genie somewhere for granting a wish made by an extraordinary girl.


	4. little star

"Wake up, wake up, Doctor." Kiss, kiss. "Your morning tea is coming."

"I'm up, Pinoko-chan." Black Jack sighed, rubbed his eyes then opened them to see his new wife leaning over him, green eyes big and happy. "What do you mean?"

"Pinoko ordered room service!"

"I can only imagine the fortune this honeymoon will cost me." Black Jack sulked and sat up. He kissed her cheek before he went to brush his teeth. When he returned, two bellhops were wheeling in about ten different trays of food and a whole box full of teas and coffees. "What the hell is this?" he demanded.

"Pino- I didn't know what Doctor would like, so I ordered different options." Black Jack glared at the bellhops, faulting them for listening to the whims of a spoiled little girl. "Pick one thing and send it all back. I'll have tea and a biscuit." He translated to the bellhops while Pinoko moaned in agony.

"No, Doctor! Everything looks so good, and Pinoko's never had French food!"

"Exactly, you'll get sick if you eat even more than one thing. Have the French-toast, light on the syrup, and a tea. Here you go, right here they have 'Gyokuro - Japanese green tea.' Probably fake, but it'll do."

"Doctor is cruel," whined Pinoko, gazing at a chocolate eclair. 

"Do you want to be sick your first day in Paris?" Black Jack poured himself his tea. Pinoko sniffed despondently and shook her head. She pointed to the French toast. The bellhops left and Black Jack cheered Pinoko up with promises of surprises. "Would Doctor maybe, get a Cartier piece for me? 

"One piece."

They had their breakfast on the veranda, Pinoko chattering about she'd learn how to make French toast so they could have it at home. She allowed Black Jack all the sulkiness he wished, while admiring the streets below. Then memories of the night before crept in, and the most pleasant feelings ran through her. She blushed and sipped her tea, recalling the intimacy, the deliciousness of every new sensation, remembering the feel of him against her, kissing her breathlessly. Shivering, she returned to reality and saw Black Jack with that streak of white hair occulting his eyes, lost in reverie, lighting a cigarette. "Can I have one?" she asked.

Black Jack emerged from his thoughts. "I thought you hated cigarettes."

"I once bought a pack of filtered ones and I liked them!"

He pulled another out of his silver case. But instead of handing it to her, he held onto it and passed the one he'd been smoking, with a warning, "hand-rolled ones are stronger." Pinoko placed the cigarette between her lips and dragged. It was indeed strong. She exhaled without coughing but only barely. Still. It was delicious.

"You like it?" Black Jack asked.

Pinoko nodded and took another drag, tipping back in her chair and gazing at the morning-sky. "Oh, Doctor, when can we have sex?" Pinoko finally asked.

"Whenever you like." Black Jack sounded almost bored. "But you'll need to stay in bed for a while after."

"Why?"

"You'll be sore."

"Oh. Is tonight good?" Pinoko asked.

"If you like;" Black Jack exhaled a rich cloud of smoke, eying her, "But if not, I could do again what I did last night."

And Pinoko's breath hitched, her eyes fluttered downward. Then she asked what has been burning in her since she fell asleep last night: "Can I do that to you?"

Black Jack smirked at her innocence. "If you want to."

"Do you want me to?" Pinoko raised her eyes, smiling coyly through her cigarette.

"You're getting better at dropping the formalities and honorifics," he said. "Come here." Pinoko crept into Black Jack's arms and he kissed her mouth gently, slowly, until she burned with desire. Then, he gathered her in his arms and took her inside and got into bed with her. And again, climax came quickly for them both, clothed, and driven by kissing and friction. Pinoko loved it for all its closeness, legs open and around his hips, rocking up against his pelvis grinding down against her, feeling his hardened member still so foreign to her. As she clung, panting, Pinoko felt hot, sticky liquid seeping through both their clothing by the groin and remembered what Doctor had said about men.

"Did you..." Black Jack struggled to catch his breath, "are you sure you reached the top, like last night?"

"Yes," Pinoko replied. "You too? I feel wet." Black Jack made to get up but Pinoko whimpered, "no, please," and beckoned that he lay in her arms. He did. Pinoko felt emotion sear through her and realized she was going to cry. She tightened her embrace around Black Jack, and buried her face against the crook of his neck. "Acchon Burike, Doctor," she cried, "I never dreamed we could be so close." 

"I know." Black Jack sounded so tender. Pinoko smiled through her tears and reveled in that feeling all women get when they hold the man they love. "Cruel Doctor!" she cried, lightly striking his shoulder. "Mean Doctor. All the times you scared me, trying to make me think you didn't care!"

"I didn't want to hurt you," he insisted.

"Remember when you sent me to be adopted by a strange couple?"

"I thought I was dying of peritonitis," said Black Jack. "And I wanted you to be safe."

"Then once you went away to the snowy mountains, and hurt my feelings, and I followed you all by myself on the train."

"I was running from the police, and I knew if they caught you by my side they'd take you away." 

"You also left me alone in that storm as the house blew away!"

"But I knew you could handle it. The girl I attended to was dying of an ectopic pregnancy." 

"Left me to cure a woman with pulse-less disease, and refused to come home..."

"...Yes. Quarantining myself from cholera, so Pinoko-chan wouldn't get it."

Pinoko smiled, shaking her head. "And does Doctor remember how many countless times I was kidnapped and held as ransom?"

Black Jack stroked back her bangs. "Because they always knew I would do anything for you."

Pinoko kissed his lips. "Doctor is tough to live wif. But I imagine Pinoko is too, huh?"

Black Jack sighed, long and deep, and Pinoko laughed. They lay together for a while, dozing. She carded fingers through his hair. The morning wore on lazily, the spring sun peeking through the veranda. Until he kissed her again and she whispered, "please... I want to give you that pleasure." Black Jack nodded and averted his eyes. He gently turned them over so Pinoko lay on top. She rained kisses on him, kisses everywhere. He sighed, unused to affection, and tried to relax. It was one thing to bestow love onto her, but it was another to receive it. What eased the experience and warmed his heart was her clumsiness. No force on earth had taught her the ways of love and she was driven purely by sincerity and instinct, and what she'd learned from him the night before. He gave in to a little moan.

Pinoko gazed down hesitantly at him. "Help me?" Black Jack gulped and dragged off his underwear. She shifted and stared down at his erection. "Oh!" Pinoko gasped. She fluttered her eyes in modesty, biting her lip. 

"You don't have to do this now," Black Jack reassured. "We have forever." Pinoko shook her head. "No we don't, we're always in danger!" Black Jack grinned in spite of himself. "OK, Pinoko. Be gentle. Keep your lips over your teeth at all times and go slow, little by little. Stop whenever you feel uncomfortable. Promise me." Pinoko nodded. "Also: I'll know when I'm going to climax so when I say so, pull away." She nodded again.

"I will. Will it feel as good as when you did it to me?" 

"Yes, as long as you don't bite." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Then she fell forward and kissed him passionately. She made her way down to his chest, kissing scars- scars from being sewn back together from his childhood accident, then from adulthood, being shot, stabbed, whipped, all the things he'd endured living the life of an outlaw. "Thank you... thank you..." Lips skimmed so many textures, soft, scarred, rough, burned... Pinoko murmured some things Black Jack couldn't believe she would. Thinking he may have heard wrong, he asked: "What's that, Pinoko-chan?" She looked up, flushed. "I was saying thank you to two people... who brought me the happiness of my whole life." Black Jack's throat tightened. "Dr. Honma," Pinoko continued, "saved your life, didn't he? He must be in heaven, with your mother. I have both of them to thank." Black Jack stroked her cheek. "Don't cry, Doctor." Pinoko kissed a stubborn tear. Black Jack pressed his lips against her cheek, tightly shutting his eyes, and blessed the memory of his mother and thanked whichever god sent him a star from the heavens in the form of a cystoma. Pinoko smiled and accepted his love. How long she had yearned for it... "Let me," she said, and recommenced her routine worship: down along his chest, down his forearms to his fingertips, and then to the dip of his belly, where there were scars from self- performed operations (peritonitis, worms from Australia, etc.).

"Tell Pi- tell me if I hurt you," she breathed. He nodded, fingers at her jaw. His eyes were soft, mouth slightly open. She felt all the more encouraged. She held to his hips, licked her lips, and slipped her mouth along the shaft of his erection. Immediately she noted the delicacy of his foreskin, his musky scent, and the bitter taste of him bursting on her tongue. This member was hard, harder than any organ of hers could ever become, but it was flesh and blood and alive and it was Doctor's. Here was part of her husband's own heart, where he felt his greatest pleasure, and what streaked through her was the thought that this part of him was what would enter her and bring about insurmountable pleasure. He groaned, closing his eyes, and he softly swayed his hips. Encouraged and excited, she sucked him into her mouth, and she was accosted with a bitterness she didn't like at all. But she persisted and then found her mouth moving on its own, pulling deeply, because something about this felt right, and she wanted more, more pleasure for them both. He lolled his head back, keening from his throat, and his grip tightened on the sheets. Spreading her legs, her desire spiraling, soaking her, she swallowed him until he hit her throat and she remembered what he'd said about choking. Gripping the base of his erection, she pulled her wet mouth up. Then he moaned out, in a voice deep and thick with sex.

 _Shee-uno aramanchu_.

Pinoko flicked her eyes up to his and tried it again. Up and down, down and up, smiling through her occupied mouth because her Doctor was now reduced to pure need, eyes glazed with desire, pupils dilated, lips parted: beneath her mouth and before her eyes, and her arousal ached so much she frotted into the mattress. "Pinoko... stop!"

¡ACCHON BURIKE!

Reluctantly, keening in protest, Pinoko  pulled away. But Dr. Black Jack was sucking on two of his fingers and beckoning her. "Come here, baby," he breathed. Pinoko slunk forward, heady and confident, and then his fingers slipped between her legs into her panties and her world lit on white fire. "OH!" Her vision quaked and sense abandoned her, as all that suddenly mattered in the world was his glorious touch. The muscles in her arms gave out and she collapsed, and he expertly stroked her clitoris while she moaned and cried. "Well, aren't you my naughty little girl," he breathed in her ear, quickening his ministrations, "to be so natural an expert at pleasuring a man." Drunkenly she grinned, blind with pleasure, and French-kissed whatever skin of his she found, "Dr. Black Jack, please!" Her hand wrapped around him and stroked at the same pace he did, and he cried out, raggedly and boldly and with all his masculinity. Then they abandoned themselves, and peaked, right up against each other, hard, harder than the previous times. Buried though she was against his neck, she looked down to see his magnificent instrument in action, as he pulsed and ejaculated, and she wished he was inside her, drenching her and soothing the ache caused by all this desire... He kissed her and the kiss healed the flame of ardency... with gratitude and relief... and the promise of future intimacy.

* * *

It was dusk at the Pont Neuf. The street lights were muted, and the little boats along the Seine twinkled in the waves. The highlighter-green leaves of the Linden trees swayed on the breeze, perfuming the air.

"Doctor?" 

"Hm?" 

"What was it like the first time you came to Paris?"

Black Jack frowned. "That's a sad story."

"Pinoko can handle sad."

"All right," he said. "Well, I was about twenty, and a medical student. I had to stay in a poorer area because I didn't have a lot of money then. The lock to my hotel bedroom was even broken. Where I stayed was was near Pigalle, the red light district. Do you remember what you learned about geisha? Geisha are well-cared-for; they're artists and entertainers, and present the illusion of sexual pleasure. The type of people in Pigalle- who're mostly girls and women, but there are boys and men too- are prostitutes, which means they actually have sex with clients, however the client wants. That's the entertainment." Pinoko swallowed and nodded. Black Jack continued: "Most of them are forced into it, because they're poor or they're under threat. Anyway, I was here to attend a conference. But there was this girl. She was young, probably only thirteen or fourteen, and she was Algerian, and she found out I was studying medicine so she lurked around the front of my hotel. Finally, I told her I wasn't interested, to please leave me alone but then she begged me to give her medicine for a kidney infection, that she would give me very good sex, as much as I wanted, if I would help her. I took pity on her and ran tests and then I saw that the kidney infection was past the stage where it could be cured with only medicine. The tests also showed she had diseases contracted from promiscuity. Those I gave her antibiotics for, but the kidney infection needed surgery. I didn't have my license yet and no hospital would allow me to operate, so I gave her whatever money I could and instructions on how to apply for surgery. I insisted she find a way out of the hateful business, but she said there was no way. She and her two siblings didn't have any family, and had been brought from Algeria to Paris by a trafficker. Looking back, I can't imagine she was able to save herself and to hide the money from the pimp- that's the man she answered to, who traded her off. But, I couldn't just do nothing. When I returned a few years later, with my license, I asked all around for her and nobody knew where she had gone, most people didn't even remember her."

Pinoko looked out on the river. "Pinoko hopes she got better and was able to escape. Doctor did everything he could!" 

"You always say that," Black Jack said. 

"Because it's true." 

"If you say so." 

"Can Doctor... Can you go to that area this time and see what you can do for the poor girls?"

"Hm? No. I don't have the money."

"Wha-!?" Pinoko gaped at him. "What do you mean?" 

"This luxury-honeymoon costs a fortune," insisted Black Jack, a barely-there smile twitching his lips. "And didn't my wife ask for a Cartier piece? Philanthropy isn't in my budget." 

"But... but! But Doctor has a lot of money!" 

"Now you sound like the kidnappers."

"Acchon Burike. Well... well... What if Pinoko... ah." Pinoko struggled to say what she really didn't want, "what if I donate my Cartier gift? Would Doctor match the price of the gift to a donation to someone who needs help?" Black Jack smiled.

"Good girl. Yes."

"Argh! You were supposed to say you'd give it to me anyway, selfish!" Pinoko pouted.

"That would dishonor your generous intent, wouldn't it?" Black Jack commented. Pinoko rolled her eyes.

"Let's go to dinner, come," Black Jack laughed and led her away and people around them blushed at what a beautiful, perfect (albeit somewhat odd) couple they made. Black Jack took her to a bright, bustling restaurant along the Champs-Élysées and ordered the most expensive bottle of Bordeaux. Pinoko turned pink with drink and delight, having truffles and bruleés, smoking up all his cigarettes and laughing her now-adult laugh at the strange adventures he could finally tell her about now that she understood adulthood. Their waiter was trying not to ogle her too much, because Black Jack really didn't seem like a man he'd want to make angry. He was young, and very charming and flirtatious. "Don't be jealous," Pinoko leaned forward to kiss Black Jack's cheek, "my wonderful, brilliant, genius, kiss, so very sexy Doctor!" Black Jack smiled slyly. "Oh, I'm not." He pulled out a little black velvet box, and Pinoko had read enough of Vogue-Japan to recognize the writing on the top, the two English names.

Harry Winston. Pinoko's mouth opened in shock. "Doctor?"

"Open it."

Pinoko seemed afraid to touch the box, but she did, gently, take it in her hand and opened it. The ring was... "A sakura!" Pink and white diamonds and a ruby encrusted meticulously together to create the signature Japanese cherry blossom, sitting magnificently on a platinum band. Custom-made. Pinoko was speechless.

"Even with round green eyes and this pretty light-brown hair," Black Jack twirled a lock, "you're a flower of Nippon. A porcelain of the East." Tears welled again in Pinoko's eyes and she cried against her palm. "Doctor keeps making Pinoko cry! Oh, Doct- oh, Kuro'o! Thank you!"

"Try it on." He helped her slip it on her ring finger, where it glittered against her hand like the wedding-ring of any princess. "It fits perfectly," Pinoko breathed.

"My wife didn't think I'd leave her diamond-less, did she?" Black Jack lit a cigarette. "See why I was trying to get you to reject the idea of a Cartier piece? Unless... you want to give back this ring and get something less than Harry Winston."

"No!" Pinoko clutched the box, eyes wide in terror. "Oh, Doctor, Pinoko could never have imagined anything like this, it's the most beautiful thing! And, how..." She gazed up to him, blushing, "how did you know I felt self-conscious about not looking Japanese?"

"I heard you yelling at the woman who fit you into the wedding gown that just because you looked European didn't mean you weren't Nihonjin and 'kawaii.' "

"Pinoko can be rude to people when she's mad." She stored the empty box in her purse. "Thank you for being so creative."

"She was the rude one," insisted Black Jack, dragging his cigarette. "Besides, you know how so many women back home get jealous because they've got it in their heads that it's better to be caucasian. They'll be jealous of you, but just remember the sakura."

"I'll have it on every day to remember."

Black Jack coughed a little smoke. "No, you won't. That ring is the most valuable thing I've ever come into dealings with, and it's going in a safe at home, where you can take it out for special occasions. I've got it insured, but I won't have you taking chances. Swear it, Pinoko." Pinoko sulked a little, looking down again at its beauty. "Grocery shopping can be a special occasion to some," she argued. Black Jack almost smiled but managed to keep a stony face. Pinoko huffed. "OK, OK! I swear." Black Jack sighed in relief. Pinoko stole his cigarette and took a drag for herself, then grinned and kissed his cheek, tipsy and still overwhelmed with happiness.

Back in the hotel-room, they wouldn't stop kissing, even while he undid her dress and she his waistcoat. Black Jack was persistent with her, though still gentle, but he could sense beneath her kiss that she wanted more. When he got her down to her underwear, he fell to his knees and kissed her stomach, then he slipped off her panties and kissed there too, but this made Pinoko wobble. He stopped only when it became obvious she could no longer stand, then he took her in his arms and brought her to the bed. He kissed her lips, her cheek, her neck, then finally, slid his hands up her belly to cup her breasts and she shivered and moaned. When his mouth replaced his fingers, she arched and smiled... Then he sat up and gazed down at her naked form, black-and-white hair mussed from all her pulling. His hands ran over her body- possessively and reverently.

"I want you," Pinoko confessed. Black Jack was just about to fall forward again but something in his eyes changed. "I need to get some things. Wait." Pinoko pouted but Black Jack kissed her forehead. He went to his kit and rummaged, then disappeared into the bathroom with it and reappeared a moment later with towels, a bowl of water and gauze and lubrication.

Pinoko, sitting up, became a little frightened. "W-what's all that for?" She eyed the gauze in particular. Black Jack sat on the bed and spoke softly.

"There's a little pain involved," Black jack confessed. Pinoko gasped. "Remember I said you'd feel sore. It's abrasion, over and over, and because you're a virgin a little membrane will break and bleed."

Pinoko's mouth trembled in apprehension. "Will Doctor hurt too?" she asked. Touched, Black Jack stroked her cheek. "Maybe a little soreness."

"Pinoko is nervous."

"That's natural. Are you sure you want this tonight, Pinoko-chan?"

"Yes," said Pinoko, trying to smile through her fear.

"I'll try and make it good for you,” said Black Jack, softly. “Stop me anytime, and trust me if I say we can't go faster or harder. Promise."

Pinoko nodded. Black Jack gave her a sweet kiss, and it turned into a long kiss, and soon she was once again putty in his hands and heady with desire. Pinoko's fingers went to the hem of his undershirt, his skin below hot against her touch. She tipped her head back as he kissed her throat. Then she pulled his undershirt off and took his pants off too, leaving only his underwear, which she tugged at. "Easy," he whispered but she took them off too. "Pinoko is just anxious!" Black Jack pulled her close and kissed her ardently, assuaging her emotion. Her body was silk in his arms, her heartbeat a sweet tempo setting the rhythm he should take, even and purposeful, and pulsing. Whoever this djinn was who'd given her the body she'd always been missing was an artist. Pinoko was perfectly proportioned, with soft milky skin, and a sweet natural scent, with thick honey-brown hair, and she still had her smile, still had her bright eyes, her voice was the same, if not deeper. Black Jack would never be able to figure it out. How he was trumped by powers beyond himself. This hadn't been the first time he'd been shown-up by magic, gods, and miracles, but it was by far the most incredible, and the one he was truly humbled by. Yes, may just be willing to humble himself to worship an unfathomable natural force that left all his genius talents for science in the dust. In his arms was a miracle-child, God's own beloved daughter created out of practically nothing, as if a moonbeam had fallen from the sky. He lamented ever having called her "Pinoko," after the doll Pinocchio, because it implied that he'd breathed life into a nothing-object, when the truth was that his Pinoko had breathed life into him. How pious, the Created fulfilling the heart of its Creator. A great mystery indeed, a strong kick in the teeth, but one that Dr. Kuro'o Hazama had desperately needed and was grateful for.

"Get ready. This shouldn't hurt, but tell me if it does." He slipped a lubricated finger inside her virginal walls. Pinoko gasped at the intrusion. She was reclining on top of him, like he'd told her to, so she could easily retreat back if she wanted to. "Is it all right?" he asked. "It's all right," she assured, adjusting. He added another digit and her breath hitched but she recovered and whispered, "it's OK. I'm all right." Very gently, he rubbed his fingers back and forth, slowly, withdrawing and pushing forward, following Pinoko's body's signals, sensing her feelings and responding in kind. She was doing well, her expression of discomfort morphing into one of joy and pleasure, and her hips began swaying in time with the movement of his fingers. He leaned and placed kisses along her jaw and her neck. He could feel his fingers getting more slippery, and her opening giving way under his touch. He stretched her a little more by scissoring and he whispered little comforts when she gasped again, but she soon relaxed back into pleasure and kissed his mouth. "Oh... I-I think I'm going to...!" 

"Go on," he urged. "Come for me." Eyes fluttering closed, she rocked in time to his pistoning fingers and then soon clenched around them and cried out desperately. Black Jack himself almost came, witnessing her fall under his determined ministrations. "OK, Pinoko-chan," he breathed, easing his fingers out, collecting her in his arms while she was still lax and loose, and dragging over the lubrication, the gauze and a towel, "Doctor's going to make love to you, now. Trust me." He quickly but thoroughly coated himself with lubrication. Then, gently, he situated her on his lap as he leaned up against a series of pillows. "I trust you," whispered Pinoko, smiling against his shoulder. He took her chin gently in his hand so she could look at him and he smiled at her lovesick expression. "You're so beautiful. OK, ease yourself up, like this," he guided her hips, "then slide down so I'm inside you. Slowly. Here." He gently slid his fingers inside her slit again and lined her with more with lubrication, then withdrew. "Come rub yourself against me. Like that, good girl." Black Jack was losing himself as Pinoko frotted against him, his eyes flickering upward. "Just like that, yes. Use your weight in your favor, take me in little by little, and tell me when it hurts."

"Tell me, too, if I hurt you!" Pinoko whispered, kissing him. Black Jack smiled at her naivety. "OK." Gently, slowly, she eased herself upon the head and fed it to herself while slipping down as much as felt comfortable. Then she threw her arms around his neck. He ran hands along her hips, murmuring his love's passion, unabashed adoration he never realized he possessed. She keened a little, and he brought his arms around her waist and kissed her. His hands ran up her back to ease the tension. She relaxed and moaned into his kiss, then eased herself further down, wincing, then recovering quickly, promising, "it doesn't hurt, it's just big."

"Kiss me, Pinoko, I love you. Come here." She slid down further, almost fully impaled, and they both groaned. He got to murmuring, "you're beautiful, princess," things he never thought he'd say, gaze full of lust and love as she enveloped him, muttering between kisses, "I want to make love every day and spoil you rotten, I swear, I want to give you everything you want."

"Pinoko will remember Doctor's words," Pinoko breathed, grinning, resting her forehead against his. And with one last thrust, she brought him inside. She threw her head back, in shock, in ecstasy, in a little bit of pain, then collapsed against his shoulder. Kissing all the skin of hers he could, he held her, and stroked locks of damp hair. Pinoko pulled back, needing no more instruction. Her heart and her body knew exactly what to do, and his golden eyes told her all about his pleasure. Blissfully, blushing, she rolled her gentle hips and met heaven. Feeling him react, how his hands worshipped her skin, his member sliding back and forth inside her, she pushed back his damp hair and bestowed on his lips a pleasure-braised kiss. Then she moved. Right into the pain and discomfort. She spread her legs more and he pulled her closer and she bucked slowly, but just hard enough, down upon him and then realized here was the missing piece, the balm to the burning flame in her loins, to the ache she'd been feeling since acquiring this full-grown body, and somewhere in her heart she realized it was balm against... the terrible trauma of eighteen years... but she couldn't think then, no, only feel her Dr. Black Jack, her husband forever, mark her purest part as his own, as if she already wasn't his. Two people who had seen too much of the world for their own good, who were broken, ripped, shred to pieces in every way humans could be but had somehow found themselves sewn back together and made to endure, finding one another by the hand of Fate... and, to make up for so much pain, their climax was sweet and powerful, and sensation rolled through them: pleasure, shock, abandonment, a numb bliss and a raw ecstasy, lonely in darkness and yet brilliant in unity. It was speaking in this act without uttering a word, like the night years ago Pinoko had yelled just from her mind to be rescued and the Doctor had heard her in his brain and obeyed, and created her. Blind, shaking, Black Jack felt around for the gauze and helped his sweat-sleek wife up off him, though she whined and clung. "C-come on," he urged, breathing beginning to even. He shifted so he could slide himself out. She winced, and without skipping a beat he pressed the gauze against her to staunch the dripping semen and blood. "Tell me how you feel," he whispered, desperate to bring them back from oblivion. Pinoko only nodded and looked at him adoringly. He cupped her cheek and realized it was drenched with tears. He kissed them all away, and she sobbed and tried to speak. "Don't be scared," he murmured. Pinoko didn't know if she was scared, or what she was feeling at all. She knew she could never live without her husband... Doctor... Daddy... God... whosever's arms these were she was in. Her ego raged against it, furious to find no way out of such ultimate dependency. It was justified, for love shouldn't exist like hers and Black Jack's... people like her and Black Jack shouldn't, by nature's design, exist at all. A man made of stitched up of shredded limbs and organs and a woman gleaned from the body of another because the man was lonely, they were a twisted, perverse brand of Adam and Eve and shouldn't that mean their end would be as disastrous? Reading her thoughts, Black Jack kissed her cheek and whispered, "we're going to be OK." He lay her down upon the towel as she wept and tried reassuring that she didn't hate him, that she was just feeling too many things all at once, that she was sorry. He dipped a hand-towel in the hot water and sponged her body, little by little. This helped.

Pinoko calmed and turning to him, she asked, "am I pregnant, now?"

Black Jack smiled. "Have you been tracking your menstrual cycle, like I taught you?" he asked. Pinoko nodded, becoming lulled by his ministrations. "What have you noticed?" said Black Jack.

"The bleeding lasts about two or three days." Pinoko smiled contentedly at her husband's soft caresses. "An, umm. Oh, my temperature rises about sixteen days after the bleeding starts and stays like that. Then it dips down a few days before the bleeding begins."

"You have a healthy cycle," said Black Jack, contented. "You probably ovulate around day 13 or 14, and your fertile stage ends when your temperature rises. Did you take it this morning?"

"Yes. But, it's been going up and down in the last few days, that's not normal." Black Jack stroked her hair back and said, "That's probably because of the traveling, the circadian rhythm mat be off-balance. When was your last period?"

"Sixteen days ago." Pinoko scrunched her nose. "Or, seventeen, since we're behind from the time- difference."

"You may still be in the fertile stage, then." Pinoko grinned and kissed his hand. Excitedly, she asked, "Do you think it's a boy or a girl?" 

"Let's give it a chance to be made first," Black Jack said, grinning. Pinoko lovingly reached for him, and for one instant she looked like his beautiful mother. He turned off the light and fell into her beckoning arms, where she held him to her and didn't chide him for his silent tears, only whispered love and comfort. They dozed, then woke shortly after and took turns taking their baths until they were able to cuddle up together all clean again. Black Jack was just about to lull into a very beautiful sleep when Pinoko whispered, "Doctor? How do you pray to Allah?" and then he opened one eye in perplexity.

"What?" 

"Well. Pinoko thinks Allah sent the djinn. And I want to thank Him."

Black Jack sighed. "I don't know how. Anytime I saw a Muslim praying I was usually working on saving his life, not paying attention."

Pinoko pouted. "Well, I want to learn to pray to someone, to any of the gods that helped Pinoko and Doctor."

"I'm afraid I can't help you. It's been so long since I've prayed to anyone."

"Maybe Doctor should try more," said Pinoko quietly. Her eyes were stars in the dark, and Black Jack entangled their fingers together.

"Maybe I should," Black Ja k breathed. "Which other gods helped?"

"Hm, let's see. Buddha!" 

"I've been trumped by the Buddha’s wisdom before, several times." 

"Then, Vamana. Oh, and Rama."

"Those are new ones." Black Jack considered. "Rama's blue and carries a bow, right? And Vamana is the dwarf."

"Yes! Then, the Virgin Mary and her Child Jesus." Pinoko snuggled closer to Black Jack, and he held her.

"Ah, I was beaten by them once. Now twice, damn it." Pinoko jogged her memory. "Oh, yeah! In El Salvador, solving Kenpei's mystery! And Padre Fathna couldn't explain the seamless surgery he'd performed, owing it all to the precise direction of Mary. Pinoko remembers. Doctor was so upset."

"I'm still upset," Black Jack said bitterly. "Anyone else?"

"No. Unless there were more Pinoko doesn't know." Pinoko smiled. "It's funny, Doctor, there are so many gods all depending on the people. Do you think they may just be different versions of the same One?" Black Jack gazed off. "That's probably right. There's One I've devoted my whole life to fighting against. That force. That truth. The unfathomable design." Pinoko frowned.

"It's exhausting fighting," continued Black Jack enigmatically. "But I always thought there was nothing to be grateful for, no one to worship. Just persistence. And 'love,' but I never believed I was fit for it. Until a little girl came along." He beamed down at Pinoko. "She's making a believer out of that heathen, Dr. Black Jack." He tucked back a piece of her hair. "Bringing out the man beneath the scars.

"Maybe there were times Doctor was the man, and the world was the heathen." Black Jack closed wet eyes and pressed his lips to Pinoko's forehead. 

"Maybe, little star."


End file.
